Despite Appearing Harmless, I Feel Like I've Been Set Up

Inside the private room, the boys were letting their voices rip, while the girls huddled together in a chattering cluster. It was the quintessential atmosphere of a "normie" clique, and amidst it all, Chiba Yu looked exactly like a husky that had wandered into a pack of wolves.

He held a glass of juice, downed a mouthful, and then quietly listened to their playful banter and commotion.

Sure enough, coming here was the worst decision he had made in the last few days.

"Chiba-kun, I'm sorry. It seems I acted on my own."

Hirata approached him, offering an apologetic smile. He had just finished chatting with the girls and noticed Chiba Yu sitting all by himself, so he had come over to strike up a conversation.

"It's not your fault, Hirata. It's just that I'm not very good at fitting in." Chiba Yu indicated that he didn't blame him at all; in fact, he began to chat with him.

"Hirata-kun, what do you think of this school?"

Glancing back at Karuizawa Kei, who had started singing along with Matsushita and the others, Chiba Yu asked a question that seemed entirely pointless.

"Hmm... I think it's great. Not only can we choose the jobs we like after graduation, but they even give us a hundred thousand points every month."

A very ordinary answer—no, it would be more accurate to say it was an answer that fit the mindset of a normal person.

"What do you think, Chiba-kun?" Hirata asked in return.

"Me?" Chiba Yu's gaze gradually drifted, his thoughts seemingly floating far away, though to Hirata, it just looked like he was contemplating how to answer.

"It's... quite unrealistic, isn't it?"

"Unrealistic?" Hirata looked a bit puzzled.

"Hirata, do you really think that what the school gives us comes without any strings attached?" That single sentence pulled Hirata into deep thought; the way he looked at me seemed a bit off.

"Why do you say that? Could it be that the school has other intentions?"

Chiba Yu sighed silently and then added, "It's nothing, just my own speculation. You can treat it as a joke."

But as someone who would eventually become one of the leaders of Class D, Hirata's observational skills were naturally not weak. His eyes narrowed slightly, and his entire demeanor turned serious.

"No! I think what you said is very worth considering, but could you tell me why you feel that way?"

Trouble. That was my most honest thought at that moment.

Originally, I had only spoken out of boredom and a desire to see what these people might do if they were given a few hints in advance, but I hadn't expected to drag myself into the fire.

"I just have an instinctive feeling that something is off. Besides, it's just a high school; they couldn't possibly be deceiving us, right?"

I deflected the question back to Hirata and used a perfunctory excuse to brush the matter aside, but after this, a seed of doubt would surely be planted in Hirata's mind.

"Hirata-kun, let's sing a duet!"

Just as Hirata was about to say something, he was forcefully pulled away by Karuizawa. Left sitting there all alone, Chiba Yu thought for a moment, then grabbed his jacket, gave Hirata a casual word of departure, and left the room without waiting for a response.

Outside, the sky was already pitch black. Starlight dotted the night, making the heavens shine even more brilliantly.

Quiet.

That was Chiba Yu's most direct sensation. Perhaps the noise from the karaoke room had acted as a contrast, making his walk along the tranquil path feel exceptionally lonely.

"The peaceful days are coming to an end." Looking up at the sky with a sigh, Chiba Yu slowly headed toward the dorms...

May 1st.

The weather was overcast, a heavy, dark gloom that seemed ready to swallow the entire world. The air was deathly still.

With a sense of resignation but no other choice, Chiba Yu shouldered his bag and stepped out of the dorm.

However, fate seemed to have a sense of irony. Even though I had calculated the time to leave to avoid running into anyone I knew and dodging those troublesome social pleasantries, a man stepped out of the dorm in perfect synchronization with me the very next second.

"...Good morning."

"Morning."

Over this past month, I didn't know if the heavens were specifically targeting me, but every time I left, there was an eighty percent chance I would run into Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. It made me wonder if someone was setting me up.

"Did you receive the point distribution from the school today?" As they walked toward the elevator, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka shook the terminal in his hand, asking as if to verify.

"Looking at you, I assume you didn't either." Chiba Yu didn't hide the fact that he hadn't received any points—or rather, there was no need to hide it.

"It seems there might be some issue on the school's end. Regardless, let's get to the classroom first."

After exiting the dormitory building, the two walked in silence toward the classroom. Until the very second they arrived, they maintained a mutually agreed-upon quiet.

But the next second, the moment we stepped into the classroom together, the eyes of everyone in the class shifted toward us. The atmosphere was stifling to the extreme.

"Hey, Ayanokoji, did you get this month's point distribution?" Ike, the big mouth, was the first to reach Ayanokoji's side, asking him anxiously.

Has it already started? Just because they didn't receive their points, these people were already this anxious?

"No."

"Everyone is the same. Seriously, what is the school doing!"

"Exactly. I've been wanting that dress for a long time; I was just waiting for the points to drop today to go get it."

"Yeah, yeah!"

The people in the class were chattering away, discussing the delay in points, and some were even openly complaining about the school's incompetence.

Seriously, so noisy...

Sitting quietly in his seat, Chiba Yu only found them noisy.

He slid his bag under the desk and waited silently for Chabashira Sae to arrive, when suddenly, Hirata walked up to his desk.

Chiba Yu looked up at Hirata, who wore a faint, bitter smile, and couldn't help but ask, "Is something the matter, Hirata?"

After hearing this, Hirata spoke with a hint of worry in his tone, "It's nothing, just that after I went back that day, I thought about what you said, and combined with the current situation, I couldn't help but feel a bit concerned."

Chiba Yu nodded. It seemed there were still smart people in this class, though, starting to worry only now—wasn't it a bit late?

"Hey, hey, Hirata-kun, let's go to Keyaki Mall after school later. I heard a really delicious dessert shop just opened there."

Karuizawa Kei, sitting in the seat in front of Chiba Yu, saw Hirata nearby and smiled as she struck up a conversation with him. Even with her own anxieties, she still prioritized others' feelings like a saint; truly, that is you, Hirata-kun.

"Alright, the morning meeting is about to begin." At that moment, Chabashira Sae walked in and placed her belongings on the podium.

"Teacher, why haven't this month's points been deposited yet!" Yamauchi Haruki was the first to raise his hand, asking with an impatient look on his face.

"No, this month's points were already deposited to you all," Chabashira Sae replied in a flat tone.

"Eh? But..."

Chabashira Sae continued to explain, "The points were already deposited; there is no doubt about that, and it is impossible for the school to have singled out this class and left it out."

"But, they haven't been deposited at all."

Silence—a deathly silence. Chabashira Sae suddenly fell quiet, and the atmosphere in the entire classroom became stifling to the extreme.

It's starting, Chiba Yu couldn't help but think, it's just like the declaration before an ancient battle.

"You really are a bunch of fools." Chabashira Sae lowered her voice, a wicked smirk appearing on her lips as if she were suppressing some kind of emotion. "I said it back at the start of the term: this school measures students by their ability. In other words, you are—trash evaluated as [0]!"

Chiba Yu slowly opened his eyes, his peripheral vision drifting toward Ayanokoji Kiyotaka by the window, and their gazes collided for a fleeting moment.

Chiba Yu knew that from this moment on, the true school life had finally begun.

Welcome to—Classroom of the Elite!